Computer operating systems frequently employ a graphical user interface to convey information to users via a monitor by various combinations of graphical items, including icons, text, drop-down menus, dialog boxes, and toolbars. A graphical user interface operates as part of the operating system and provides an interface to the operating system, and to application programs running in conjunction with the same, that allows users to access files and functions of the files. An operating system that provides such a graphical user interface is the "WINDOWS" operating system manufactured and sold by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., the assignee of the present invention.
A user typically interacts with a graphical user interface by positioning a cursor over the graphical items with a mouse, or other input device, and actuating, or clicking, a button on the mouse. The cursor is positioned by means of a roller ball on the underside of the mouse, which generates directional commands as the mouse is moved by the user. That mouse movement is then translated by the operating system into movement of the cursor on the screen.
In a graphical user interface, icons typically represent computer objects such as files and folders that can be manipulated by the user. A single object is selected by positioning the cursor over the icon associated with the object and clicking the mouse. The object is launched by double-clicking on the icon. Additionally, the object may be moved by clicking on the icon and holding the mouse button down while moving the mouse. Once the object has been moved to the desired location, the mouse button is released, and the object is left at the new location. This is known as "dragging and dropping."
Drop-down menus organize numerous computer operations into major headings and display the headings across the top of a computer screen. The headings each contain a menu that drops down when the heading is clicked to allow access to the operations listed in the drop-down menu. The operations may be tools, controls, commands, macros or procedures. In this way, drop-down menus provide a space-efficient means of displaying numerous operations.
Dialog boxes generally contain information concerning a particular operation and pop-up when the associated operation is invoked. Also, when a requested operation cannot be carded out by the computer because of a problem, a dialog box is used to inform the user of that problem.
Toolbars provide an alternative to drop-down menus for displaying numerous computer operations. Toolbars comprise a series of buttons arranged along a bar. Typically, a toolbar is disposed along the top of an application window, although it may also be docked along another side or even may be free floating.
The buttons are each bound to an operation such that when a button is clicked with the mouse button, the bound operation is invoked. The type of operations bound to the buttons of a toolbar depend on the type of application program of the toolbar. For example, word processing toolbars generally include buttons for setting the size, style, and alignment of text while spreadsheet toolbars generally include buttons for formatting, sorting, and graphing data.
A graphical representation of the associated operation is displayed on each button. Graphical representations are used to minimize the size of the buttons, and thus the toolbar, which maximizes the amount of monitor space available for displaying other information or data.
A toolbar provides a user with direct access to computer operations, as opposed to the indirect access afforded by drop-down menus. To balance the convenience of toolbars against their size, toolbars may be customized. This allows a user to maximize the benefit of a toolbar while minimizing its size by placing on the toolbar only those buttons for operations that are frequently used.
The capabilities of toolbars have been expanded in the prior art to include buttons for specific objects. With this capability, a button can be added to a toolbar and associated with an object such that an operation of the object is invoked by simply clicking the button.
For application programs operating in a "WINDOWS" operating system environment, the prior art method of adding a button for an object to a toolbar involves entering a special customize mode from a toolbar menu. In the customize mode, a user drags the object from a list to the toolbar and drops the object at the button's desire position on the toolbar. The button is bound to a predetermined operation for the object type and added to the toolbar by a button creation routine.
The prior art process, however, involves a number of steps. Because of this, many users may not utilize the capability of adding object associated buttons to a toolbar. Therefore, a need exists in the art for a system for, and method of, intuitively and simply adding an object associated button to a toolbar.